Farris shrugs off past, aces short program

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OMAHA, NEB. Joshua Farris, skating second among 20 competitors, jump-started the men's short program at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships on Friday night with a standout performance.

Farris, 18, from the Seattle area, then had to wait more than two hours to see just where his personal best score of 79.18 points would place him; one final, agonizing wait at the end of a long and trying road.

“It definitely was long, but after every skater I was shaking, thinking, ‘How are they going to do?' ” Farris said. “I waited, and I am in the position I am in and I can't believe it.”

Farris goes into today's long program in third place and in contention for one of two spots on the U.S. World Championships team, as he writes an unlikely ending to his two-year personal nightmare.

Farris crashed while attempting a quad jump during practice at the 2011 U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Despite tearing an abductor muscle – an injury that left him barely able to walk – Farris competed in the short program, understandably struggling through a routine that left him in 13th place.

The next day, Farris, who has a dairy allergy, had an allergic reaction to something he ate for lunch and went into anaphylactic shock. He was rushed to the hospital and remained in the emergency room until 3 a.m. the night before the long program.

Farris decided to compete despite the trip to the ER, but suffered another disaster on the ice. He fell early in the program, thinking he had sprained his ankle in the process. He fell two more times and had a series of shaky landings before completing the program. Afterward, Farris' sprained ankle was diagnosed as a broken fibula.

“Every nationals that I have done, it has always been in my subconscious,” Farris said. “I haven't done well in the past, but I told myself that I'm going to put those behind me and skate how I want to skate.”

Farris rebounded to take the silver medal at last year's World Junior Championships. Now he's in striking distance of a spot in March's World Championships in London, Ontario.

PAIRS TITLE

Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir won the pairs title Saturday despite a mistake in a routine side-by-side spin.

Castelli and Shnapir finished with an overall score of 180.61, well ahead of runners-up Alexa Scimeca and Christopher Knierim (172.75).

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